>> welcome to everyone. we thank you all for coming for the opening day celebration of the new cap. or kept as of the new corporate headquarters. i'm honored to introduce the speakers today, who will be making opening remarks. we are also especially pleased

to have with us san francisco mayor and lieutenant governor elect gavin newsom. after the speaking portion, we will have a former unveiling of the new sign, after which we will move inside for a champagne toast and food and drinks. a number of scientists are here. with that said, i am pleased to hand the podium over to the nectar president and ceo, howard w. robbins. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. thank you, jennifer. it is great to see everyone. obviously, we're very proud of our new facility. that is a state of the art facility, 100,000-plus square feet of some of the finest

research labs in the u.s., and it will really allow us to expand our groundbreaking work in the areas of oncology and pain, some areas that need help from our patients. if we bring great drugs to our patients and families through the work we do in this building, i think it will have an enormous benefit for everyone. this is not a business. this is not the it industry for the faint of heart. enormous amounts of risk have to be taken in the biotech industry, enormous amounts of human capital and economic capital have to go into building and developing new drugs. it would have a facility that is this content -- when you have a facility that is this competent and well executed, it will work very well. we have been around a number of years and it has evolved into a different company the last three, four years. we're focused entirely on chemistry and how we can apply that to drugs for cancer and

pain. we have been very successful. the pipeline of over 25 drug candidates at various stages of development, and if you look at how we have progressed as a company in biotech, we're probably in the top 20 biotech companies. i think we have made enormous progress, and that comes from the work of our employees. the companies are not based on their technology. companies are not based on their buildings, as a boat as they are. it they are built on that the employees, how hard they work, how loyal they are, how dedicated they are, and what kind of brain power and value they bring to the company. i think we have some of the finest scientists and business people in the bay area working for us and i am very proud of their buddy who has helped us achieve this enormous accomplishment. i want to think a number of people specifically. i want to thank alexandria

properties for allowing us to get this building, the architects, the builders for a spectacular job. the project management for door and a great job keeping everything on track. and i want to thank the actor core team for doing the entire interior design, robert for handling the facility management itself, belly for assisting robert and working on all the different aspects -- billy for assisting robert and working on all the different aspects. john cummings for all the work they did it in the computer area and the i.t. design, and elizabeth for making sure we stayed on budget. and we did. everybody did a tremendous job. it is an example of how the employees of nectar have excelled at allow us to have this as bardeau.

-- as our new home. most importantly, i think mayor newsom for all the work he has done in bringing nectar to this site. if i go back a number of years, when i was a ceo of another company, mayor newsom called me up and said you really should think about moving from colorado to san francisco because we have great opportunities for you. he was absolutely right. we move from boulder, colorado, to mission bay. tremendous success, beautiful laboratories. we ultimately sold the laboratories to merck, and i took over a nectar and essentially got the same call. and appropriately so. mayor newsom has been a visionary. we are here with about 150 employees. we are a growing company. we will be bringing more employees to the site and hiring employees right here in mission bay and san francisco. i think the mayor for all of his insight and vision -- i think

the mayor for all of his insight and vision. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, and welcome. it will come home. i love san carlos. i had a change in my rhetoric a little bit. it is not all about san francisco. it is good to see these clusters of innovation take shape. it is his heart started many years ago. the city and county of of san francisco. we had this great vision of taking this old industrial space, the old shipyard, the old railyard at mission bay and put it together and try to create this biotech park. it was great to get all of the plan is passed. everybody had these old ideas and visions, and the anchor of that vision.

we did not necessarily have the money. we did not necessarily have the companies that interested, because a few years ago, biotech had no interest in being in this area. i had no interest in being in the city and county of san francisco. ithere was a lot of good reason why biotech did not want to come up here. one was the perception that we're not wanted. i keep reminding people, 2005, about the time i called howard in boulder, we recognized in early 2005 we needed to change the way we did business because there was a big biotech conference up here. the board of supervisors, a true story, god is my witness, the board of supervisors passed a resolution condemning the company and commending the protesters. it was in the newspaper.

i remember the time. i got a little bit concerned about gene splicing, all of those things. it was kind of alarming. we had guys dressed up as cornstalks walking around. one might give some consideration, but i think they missed the point. that is not all just about monsanto. it kind of confused all the could not innovation -- a kind of confused all the work that was being done in the industry and we needed a change of perception. we called several people, people like howard on the business side, and with others and said we have to put together a committee here and make a case for the city and county of san francisco and really make a case. it was one thing to create a vision and framework in mission bay, but we have to make it real. the way we are going, we are in trouble.

boston gets it, conn. starts to get it. in that conference, we had the governor from iowa, new zealand, ireland. all of these countries are making the case for biotech. we had to wake up. we worked hard with the commission to change perception. it is one thing to change perception, but we cannot park. even then mission bay that have parking restrictions, transit first. we will not have enough parking spaces. so we changed the parking ratio. they said that is good, but have you ever tried to get a permit and san francisco? good point, and that is when we got guys like totten and michael and jesse together, the chamber of commerce, the development commission, all of these folks. we said we have to put together this and create active zoning and change the permitting and have somebody who will answer the phone who will navigate the

department of building inspection, planning department, etc. finally, we had to address the fourth pace, and that was payroll tax. everybody knows that one differentiator, is across the border, is we charge you for creating jobs. which is remarkable. we should be incentivizing job creation, but we tax it, the payroll tax. the good thing is we don't have a gross receipts tax. don't forget that if you go down to a place like l.a., they may hate you on the other end. we struggled, trust me. the first tax cut in san francisco in well over a decade. this town is famous for tax increases, and we want to the board of supervisors and asked for a tax cut and we got it. it was a very close out the vote. the sky was on to fall, give "

-- big corporate giveaways, everything. we went from one medical device company, claiming it was by attack because we had to feel better, -- claiming it was by attack, because we had to feel better, and we want to 7, 8, then we hit 20, 30. until we hit that magical number of 60. and here we are today, to my enthusiasm today with our 73rd biotech company in san francisco. frum want to 73 in just the last few years. it is something to be enthusiastic about. but it did not just happen. i am not saying it is city hall that makes everything happen. quite the contrary. it went on vacation, people say things seem to be going right. but it is about changing perception, doing the little

things. when a guy calls from the mayor's office climbing to be the mayor and says we care that he can slightly believe it. he believed it enough to come out here. howard is a legend. i don't want to say everything, but we sat in his living room and he said, trust me, this business is tough. you have to make huge investments. sometimes they pay off, sometimes you learn from your failures. it is remarkable to see someone who took cerna overnight from a small company to a huge company that merck bought, and now to see what he has done in just a couple years with nectar is extraordinary. it makes the point, people. he is absolutely right, all of these fancy buildings, computing

taking shape, 2 million square feet, only 1 million left, that is all great to have the physical space, but there is a point that people get why everybody wants to be down here. not just science and biotech companies, but it is people, it is a collaboration, interaction at the fitness center, what you are getting coffee. it is the connections after work and before work that sparks the quality and the imagination that leads to the spirit that defines the best of what ucsf and academia and berkeley and people from all walks of life around the world that work in these companies and elsewhere. that is what we're celebrating. that strength and concentration of human capital. we're celebrating people, and we're celebrating the most important thing we need to invest in. that is in marked contrast to

the travails that ec or the regions have to -- that you see that the regents have to raise tuition again. if we keep doing what we are doing in these colleges, we have to reconcile that. that is my political speech. but it is important. i just want you to know that i don't think there is anything more important than celebrating what we have done to attract some of the best and brightest from around the world to this city and to this region. but we need to also celebrate that proud path by celebrating a commitment to the future, that we redouble those efforts. the next half century will be nothing like the past half century. i am very proud of howard and his vision and faith and

devotion to san francisco and mission-, and these partnerships and elsewhere. i am proud to see the growth of his company and the private sector actually have job descriptions available for people to come in and get tired. -- and get hired. i'm really proud i'm reallyreg -- i am really proud of what reg has done. he recognizes china, san francisco, connecting the dots in india, connecting the dots in china. a big part of the reason we have 73 biotech companies is the work he has done with incubators and all of the incredible to see as some every time you go on a trip with him in terms of people who start to believe when they spend time with him.

i also want to honor his example and leadership today. i know howard knows why he was appointed the decision, and i think most of you do. most of you who may be at home watching channel 26, 10 of you, thank you. but you should know about reg as well. ladies and gentlemen, reg kelly. [applause] >> it is an honor and privilege on behalf of ycsf and the chancellor to walk and nectar to this committee. it is also a pleasant to welcome the second coming up howard. we had something of a royal order of nights, we would have to give to to him. it may kemp sir sir.

one of the questions we have to ask is why do people like howard want to come here? what is so special about this place? we hope it is not just because it is a mission bay neighborhood. we hope it is because it is the mission bay community and at the system. i hope that is true, because that is what we have tried to create. and if we are failing, will lose my job. that is a port that you get that. what we mean by this? -- what do we mean by this? what is a company like nectar looking for from the outside world? you are looking for great ideas from universities and also looking at acquiring up small companies. most major pharmaceutical companies grow acquisitions. what does that their debt when it comes to mission bay? access to ucsf and its faculty members. that also get access to the

mission date incubator, which has 35 companies just across the road. this is a very exciting and very normal, perhaps unique environment. let me just say about these incubators. we have gone from zero in mission-to 35. why? because of the bachus system. when they come here, they are just right across the road from all of the scientific talent, the faculty at mission bay, and we make open to them all of the resources and research facilities that we have. they are open to all of the companies and the incubator. that makes it a nice ecosystem. we're not just neighbors, we are interacting. iwhere do the big companies fit in? if you look at the small companies, what they need is some sort of advice on how you identify a market opportunity. what is the benefit of bringing

this to market? what regulatory hurdles lie face? these young kids and the incubators, the people know all of this stuff. by coming>> there is a fourth pt you need to bring in this. we have been very successful with all of the financial service people, too. why do they come here? the problems of life science, nobody is making any money because things are too risky. by having these companies start in the ecosystem, we're hoping to make sure that since we talked to companies like nectar , you have to sophisticated the bring the product to market. that makes it attractive for the

venture capitalists to come here. we have existing companies and start-ups. there is one thing that is really still missing, and that his government. that is where we have been hearing about this today. one thing we have done is to create an entity which would be a staff person supported by the community and by the city of san prince it is whose job it is to go out and market to the world. and being an interface between the city and the university. we are very happy to launch bio san francisco. we have local government, and the last thing that is missing is the state government

involvement. i have been reading the last couple of days, a draft report looking at the impact of innovation on economic growth and states throughout the union. many of the states are trying to supplant california as one of the leaders of biotechnology. they want to eat our lunch. one of the things that we have to do is evolved a decent innovation policy that governs how biotechnology is going to continue to grow or we will be left behind. whoever comes up with a policy, it has to be an astute in a very frugal one. i think i share all of your feelings on this and if we have to lose gavin, we are glad that